Histological and Biochemical Evaluation of the Liver Following Oral Administration of Breynia Nivosa on Adult Male Wistar Rats

Toxicity from herbal plants has been underestimated due to the perception that drugs from plants are absolutely safe. Breynia nivosa is a herbal plant known for its use in the treatment of tooth infection, toothaches and headaches. However, severe organ injury has been described after ingestion of variety of different herbal preparations. This led to the study on the histopathological changes associated with oral toxicity of ethanolic extract of B. nivosa on the liver. Twenty Wistar rat weighing averagely 200-250 g were divided into four groups of five rats each (n=5). Group A served as the control group while groups (B, C, D) were the experimental groups which received 200 mg/kg, 400 mg/kg and 600 mg/kg/bw of ethanolic leaf extract of Breynia nivosa respectively through orogastric intubation for 28 days. 24 hours after the last administration, the rats were anesthetized using 40 mg/kg ketamine intraperitoneally. The liver was dissected and processed for paraffin section fsor histological studies. Blood samples were collected prior to harvesting the organs through cillary puncture for determination of serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline Phosphatase (ALP). Biochemical results of the liver enzymes showed significant increase in serum ALT, AST and ALP of the treated groups (54.53±1.06), (78.73±3.98) and (192.54±3.60) compared to the control (26.66±1.06), (56.23±1.40) and (64.84±12.96) respectively. Histological result of the treated groups showed hepatic necrosis, congestion of hepatic sinusoids and loss of hepatic cells compared to the control group. These results showed that oral administration of ethanolic extract of B. nivosa can be toxic to the liver

Key Words: Breynia nivosa, hepatic cells, central vein, hepatotoxicity